Tuesday, March 03, 2015

In the summer of 2006 I suddenly came down with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). The only warning I had that something was amiss prior to 2006 is that several years before, for a nine month period I had muscle pains and was diagnosed with fibromyalgia. I started anti-inflammatory drugs in 2006 and did my best to stay active from 2006 to 2012, but always had some pain. At times the pain was debilitating.

In July of 2012 I contacted a woman whose RA had gone into remission through a special diet. She told me she had gone 100% dairy free and 100% gluten free, and within a short period of time she was pain free. I believed her story, and I had nothing to lose and decided to follow her diet.

July 25 of 2012, which was one of my cycles with severe pain, I began a new diet. I eliminated all dairy and gluten from my diet. Regarding dairy, I even avoided anything where dairy was even a minor or even minuscule ingredient. I stayed on my meds because I did not expect the diet change to have any impact. Amazingly I was totally pain free in two weeks. I then began to taper off my medicines over the next three months. I continued to improve until about December.

I began to educate myself and read two books she had recommended. From my reading I think the most likely reason I am in remission is the elimination of all dairy products, but I‘m not willing to risk adding back in the gluten.

In December 2012 my joints were in better shape than one can expect at 69, but I felt there was room for improvement and I modified my diet again. Of course I stayed dairy free and gluten free. I then went on The China Study diet which is a whole plant food diet. No processed foods and no animal protein. The change was not dramatic, but my joints improved nevertheless. I am now 71 and have zero joint issues and zero joint pain. I have now been blessed for almost three years with 100% remission from RA.

My current diet is 95% in keeping with the China Study diet. The whole plant food diet is modified a bit by me occasionally eating fish or meat, but never very much. By the way the China Study diet does not see a problem with gluten in the diet. What it does recommend is whole plant foods and of course zero dairy.

The take way from all this? Diet is more important than we realize. One is never too old to make a good decision.

For anyone considering a diet change test, based on my experience and my reading, if there is going to be a positive result, it will be seen within four weeks. Such a diet change as mine will not help everyone, and certainly will not help many as dramatically as it helped me, but even it there is a little bit of improvement, that is a good thing. My qualifications for discussing the above? I have absolutely no nutrition training and no medical training. But I have the real life experience of a miracle healing.